cannon river saugers?

[roughfish29]

if you have read some of my posts, you probably know that i am obsessed with the cannon river.

i've been catching alot of walleye out of that river lately but not one sauger.

so my question is....do sauger even live in the cannon?

[JBMasterAngler]

I'm guessing there is 1 or 2 up to the lake byllesby dam, but that'd be about it. My guess is, the close you fish to the mississippi, the better chance you'd have of getting a sauger.

[RiverFly99]

I fish the cannon quite a bit, below the dam you have more species than above, they are saugers...infact I caught one yesterday. Here's some more info thats going to make you want to fish this river even more.

All these fish were caught on the cannon:

9 lb walleye

47" northern

36" muskie...I've seen much bigger than this

15 lb flat head

5 lb smallies

7 lb brown trout

several small rainbows

the list goes on.....

This list was accomplished over the last 4 years and countless hours on the river

[roughfish29]

what dam?

i tried the cannon yesterday also. but i got skunked. it was the first time i've ever been skunked on the cannon

[RiverFly99]

The dam at lake byllesby.

[midex717]

RiverFly,

This sounds interesting. Are you fishing right below the dam, or further downstream? What is the best presentation, casting cranks, or jigs with a minnow/crawler/leach? Are you shore fishing, or in a small boat

Thanks for any info!

[roughfish29]

i would also appreciate any info you are willing to share.

i am still very new to the cannon

[FISHINGURU]

back n the day a guy would hammer tons of sauger...you'd catch 10 sauger before you would catch a walleye...now its mainly eyes with a few sauger here n there....you can get some saugeyes too.

not a bad start riverfly...i been fishin that river my whole life.

[RiverFly99]

Wading mostly, the big pike was cuaght right below the dam on the day before Thanksgiving 3 years ago the muskie near welch, I saw 2 muskies 45 inches+ floating on my pontoon between Cannon Falls and the Mississippi about a month ago. The big eye and many others 5+ during high water periods. During high water the only way to go is live bait most of my big eyes and browns have come that way. When the water is mid range cranks are the way to go. this year the river has been pretty low I've been fly fishing alot. You just have to pay attention to whats going on. Im sure you have seen schools of minnows being blown up by small mouth chasing them. Cast into those areas with a white and sivered body zonkers and its a sure hook up. Also don't be afraid to cast flies into fast moving water as smalies, white bass and rainbows are holding there and looking for small bait fish and insects that are disorientated. As for cats look for downed trees and deeper holes. I'm going to try to get down there this weekend if the weather holds message me if your interested.

[Mudcatman]

Anywhere downstream of the Cannon Falls dam will hold Saugers. I would doubt there are any at all above the dam.

[FISHINGURU]

there isn't any sauger above the dam...the sauger that are in the cannon come from the mississippi and can't go any further then the dam...there used to be a dam in welch and none of the fish could come up the river past that point but since they tore that down any species thats in the mississippi is in the cannon river up to the dam.

the river will never be anything like it used to be growing up and on into the late 90's when water levels were way higher...seems like it gets shallower every year...dryin up and getting super shallow just like all the trout streams.